


The Backup Mac Needs

by meridian_rose (meridianrose)



Category: MacGyver (TV 2016)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Canon-Typical Violence, Community: hc_bingo, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Interrogation, Kidnapping, Whump, Whumptober
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-19
Updated: 2018-10-19
Packaged: 2019-08-04 12:27:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,023
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16346720
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/meridianrose/pseuds/meridian_rose
Summary: "If help doesn't come soon..." Mac shook his head. "I need you, Jack."Mac has been kidnapped, drugged, interrogated, and awaits rescue, clinging to Jack's presence though it all.For whumptober #4 Kidnapped and the H/C bingo round 9 prompt "imprisonment".





	The Backup Mac Needs

"So, how are we getting out of here?"

Mac shrugged. He was sat in the corner of the grey stone cell, watching Jack lean against one wall.

"Come on, since when don't you have any ideas?"

"They took my knife. My clothes. Left me in this," Mac said, tugging at the thin linen that had no belt loops, no pockets, wouldn't be strong enough to bend the bars even if soaked. "They serve slop on paper plates without cutlery, not even plastic ones."  
"Surely you can something with the soggy plates?"

"I'd probably do better using the slop." He'd thought about it but so far nothing had come to mind. There was no toilet in the cell, just a metal drain concreted into one corner and Mac had rubbed his fingers raw trying to prise it up.

Every now and then they took him from the cell to hose down his prison. They strapped him into a chair and asked him questions he couldn't answer, and many he wouldn't answer. They gave him drugs which made him woozy, sometimes even pass out. Then they'd ask again. When he didn't give them what they wanted they used the cattle prod on him but no amount of electricity got them anything but screams.

Then they tore off his clothing, hosed him down, and threw him, with a fresh jumpsuit, back into the cell. If the electric didn't kill him, maybe hypothermia would, because he'd spent hours shivering until he dried off a little.

"Mac, you can't give up."

Mac closed his eyes, swallowed. "I don't know how to get out of this. So far they're too careful, too efficient." He'd tried to make a break for it a couple of times but had earned himself a smack in the face on one occasion, and on another had been tripped by a baton which had then rained down in harsh blows to his back and legs.

"You'll get through this."

"If help doesn't come soon..." Mac shook his head. "I need you, Jack."

"Buddy." Jack crouched down.

"Riley and Bozer. They said, when we were separated. At the bank." Mac blinked, his vision blurry. "They said we were co-dependent. As if having someone to rely on was a bad thing. That me needing you was something to be fixed. But I need you now Jack."

No comforting hand fell on his shoulder.

Jack sighed. "I know, Mac. Just hold on a bit longer, okay?"

Mac gave a harsh laugh. "You're still helping me. Even if you're only here in my mind."

"I'm going to be here in the flesh real soon. You know that, right? I'm probably tearing apart half of Asia to find you. Cursing you all the time for going on that meet alone. Didn't I tell you it was a bad idea?"

"Yes."

Jack shook his head. "I had you on the scope." 

Jack had set up on a building far enough away not to be seen, close enough he could use a high powered sniper scope to watch the meet. "Yet they grabbed you and somehow we haven't found you yet."

Jack must have been frantic. Mac had fought but been overpowered, shoved into the back of a car, and while no doubt Jack had quickly had Riley tracing the van, clattering down the stairs to chase after the car by foot, Mac's captors had soon pulled over and switched vehicles. They changed transport twice after that, though with a bag over his head, Mac had no idea where he'd been taken or how his friends would find him.

"I don't know how long I've been here," Mac said. He'd tried to keep track of time but the windowless cell led to a windowless corridor. Artificial light was all he saw and between the irregular meals (if the slop could be called a meal) and the drugs he could have been here two days or two months. "Maybe you've stopped looking."

"You as in Phoenix? Maybe, but Matty would fight to keep that from happening. And you as in me? You know me better than that, Mac. I'll never give up."

"Maybe I just want you to say that."

Jack shook his head, helpless. "Hold on," he said again. There was a noise and Jack stood, immediately going to the bars to stare as far as he could down the corridor. "You hear that?"

If imaginary Jack heard it, of course Mac had to have had but he was exhausted and couldn't explain that. "Sounded like an explosion."

Then gunfire. Mac tried to press himself further against the wall but he could barely move.

"Mac!"

"I hear it, Jack," he said.

"Mac! You okay? Wait one second, I'll get this door open!"

When Mac blinked and looked again, imaginary Jack was gone while outside the cell Jack was frantically hammering at the lock with the butt of a rifle.

"Jack?" Mac could hardly believe it.

"It's me buddy. Hold on one minute."

Mac gave a half-hysterical laugh. Jack was here. He was going to be rescued. It would be all right.

"You miss me?" Jack joked as he finally got the door open and came to help Mac stand, taking most of his weight as Mac struggled to his feet.

"Only a little," Mac said, partly as a joke of the sort their camaraderie thrived on, partly thinking of his imaginary companion.

"Well I missed you," Jack said as they limped along the corridor towards the sound of the last of Mac's captors being subdued. "I lost a bet with Bozer and he got to pick the music all the way here and it was three damn hours Mac."

"You lost a bet?"

"Yeah. I'll tell you about it soon as we're somewhere quieter so we can get you fixed up," Jack said.

Mac threw a glance over his shoulder where imaginary Jack had reappeared to give a wink goodbye and then disappear, unneeded now that Jack was truly here. Warm and solid and real, and always would be here, always would be the arm around Mac's shoulders, the back-up he needed.

**Author's Note:**

> [rebloggable Tumblr post](https://meridianrosewrites.tumblr.com/post/179218737022/the-backup-mac-needs-meridianrose)


End file.
